


The Storm Breaker Job

by SharaRaizel



Series: Leverage Incorporated [2]
Category: Leverage, Magic Kaito, 名探偵コナン | Detective Conan | Case Closed
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Thieves, Fluff and Crack, Friendship, Gen, Leverage-verse
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-25
Updated: 2015-04-06
Packaged: 2018-03-03 00:36:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 14,040
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2831753
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SharaRaizel/pseuds/SharaRaizel
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Under their new cover as members of "Leverage Consulting & Associates," the team take on a job to get justice for wounded veteran Cpl. Rider, who was shot by a government contractor in Iraq. The game changes, however, when the team realizes that Rider was not shot by accident, but to keep him from talking about something. Something that the team realizes may involve a U.S. congressman.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Leverage Incorporated

LOCATION: Los Angeles General Hospital Rehab Department

Saguru Hakuba entered the clinic looking for his potential client. The nurse at the front desk had pointed him towards the rehab room. All around him there were wounded army and military personnel going through their rehab programs aided by physical therapists, doctors, and nurses. It was in the back corner of the room that he found Corporal Alex Rider waiting for him. Alex was the son of an old friend of Saguru’s mother’s from her college days. John and Helen Rider had moved to America before Alex had been born, so Saguru had only heard about the young man that was only a few years younger than he was.

During his last and most recent trip to London, Saguru had told his mother that he was starting a consulting agency with some old “friends.” When she’d heard that the son of her old friend needed help, she’d called and asked Saguru to check things out since he was setting up shop in California anyway.

“Alex Rider?” Saguru said, nodding in greeting at the younger man seated in a wheel chair.

“Yeah. Saguru Hakuba, right?” Alex said, tripping over the pronunciation of the foreign name. He sat up straighter to better reach up and shake Saguru’s hand.

“You can call me by my middle name, James,” Saguru told him. “It’s what most of my English speaking friends call me. It’s easier to pronounce.”

“Thanks,” Alex chuckled. “Mum called and told me you were coming. She said that you could help.”

“I think our mothers have been chatting a little too much, but I’m always happy to help family friends,” Saguru smiled. “I promise to do what I can, so what is it that you want my help with, Alex?”

“Have you ever heard of Storm Breaker?”

“Can’t say that I have. Why?”

“Watch this,” Alex said, pulling out a laptop he had stowed in a bag attached to his wheelchair. A video was already pulled up featuring Alex in his army cammies and gear. He played the video.

“ _All right sweetheart, we are near Najaf. I’m not allowed to say exactly where_ ,” the Alex on screen said before looking away from the camera and turned it towards another soldier. “ _Hey, Paul! Say hello to Fiona_.”

“ _He’s cheating on ya!_ ” Paul said. “ _With a camel. A drunk, slutty camel._ ”

The camera moved back to Alex.

“ _All right, it was one time, okay, and the camel’s been texting me but it’s over, I promise_ …”

While Alex had been talking, there was the beeping of a vehicle’s backup alarm going off in the background.

“ _Hello_ ,” Paul said off screen. “ _PSD_.”

Alex turned the camera to show a canvassed truck bearing a symbol that looked like a battery with a lightning bolt on it.

“ _See those guys?”_ Alex asked. “ _Private contractors. They make seven hundred bucks a day. I make seven._ ”

“ _Yeah_ ,” Paul scoffed, “ _but you know what they gotta do? They gotta-_ ”

Whatever Alex’s army buddy was going to say was cut off when men started shouting and gunfire began to crackle over the laptop’s speakers. Paul went down, taking several shots in the chest.

“ _Shots fired! Shots fired! Go, go! Go red!_ ” a commanding officer was yelling in the background. Alex dropped the camera and static filled the screen before going dark. The real Alex in the present stopped the video and shut the laptop, lips pursed.

“Is Fiona your girlfriend?” Saguru asked.

“She was, but…” Alex trailed off, hands gripping his wheelchair’s armrests.

“I’m sorry,” Saguru said sincerely.

“I’m not mad,” Alex insisted. “It happens. Look, I don’t want charity.”

“My team and I are not a charity,” Saguru assured him.

“Look, James… I just want my rehab. If I’m gonna work – and I _want_ to work – Dr. Jones says I need another year and a half of hardcore rehab, maybe two more surgeries. Storm Breaker shot me up. I just want them to pay my bills, no more, no less.

“I see,” Saguru sighed. “The army investigation determined, what? That you were hit by insurgents?”

“Yeah,” Alex scowled. “That’s because Storm Breaker refused to cooperate in the investigation.”

“And they can do that?” Saguru frowned. It sounded like Storm Breaker had covered up the whole incident.

“Nobody’s stopping them,” Alex said. “They’re Yanks. Cowboys. They go off all the time, boom, boom, boom. I just want them to do right by me.”

Alex moved to pull out the flash drive that Saguru only just noticed was plugged into to the laptop’s USB port.

“Pardon me, Mr. …?”

Saguru and Alex looked up and saw one of the doctors standing nearby. She was frowning at Saguru.

“Oh, uh, Saguru James Hakuba. You’re Dr. Jones?”

“Can I talk to you outside?” she asked crisply.

“Doc, he’s cool,” Alex protested. “His mum knows by mum and I checked him out on the internet.”

“Yes, that never goes badly,” Dr. Jones said sarcastically before turning her attention back to Saguru. “With me, please.”

“I’ll be in touch,” Saguru assured Alex, taking the flash drive offered to him before following the good doctor out of the room and then the hospital altogether. It appeared that he was being escorted off the premises.

“You can’t just come in here and get his hopes up!” Dr. Jones said crossly once they were clear of the building’s front doors.

“I’m just here to provide options,” Saguru informed her.

“That are no options,” Dr. Jones sighed.

“The Veteran’s hospital,” Saguru started to suggest, but she cut him off.

“Is four-hundred miles away and has a five month waiting list. Everybody in that rehab room is a reservist. When reservists get out they get sent home no matter where home is or how far it is from the treatment they need. Nobody thought this through. We’re not a rich hospital. I cashed in every favor I had to take care of these kids for as long as I could, but I have to go back in there and tell Alex that we can’t treat him anymore. _I_ have to do that. Run your scam on somebody with money,” Dr Jones said crossly.

“It’s not a scam,” Saguru insisted. “I’m only here to help.”

“People don’t just show up to help,” Dr Jones said softly, but her voice was hard. Protective. She really cared about her patients. “That’s not the way the world works.”

She gave him one final stern look before walking away and back into the hospital. Saguru sighed, pulling out his phone, hitting speed dial.

“Miyano-san? Call them in. We have a job.”

 

LOCATION: Hollywood – Audition Room

The directors stared, overwhelmed by the… presence of the young man before them as he cried out his lines passionately, falling to his knees at the end.

“Uh… You are aware that this is a soap commercial, right?” The head director asked.

“Uh huh,” Shinichi Kudo nodded, beaming as he rose back up to his feet. “When I thought about Jeff, I came up with this idea that the dirt was this giant metaphor for sin.”

Shinichi would have continued, elaborating more on his interpretation of the character Jeff and his motives, but his cellphone went off – not his main one that he had for everyday use, but the one given to him by Shiho for their jobs.

“You should take that,” the director said. “ _Really_. You should take that.”

“Oh,” Shinichi said, knowing then and there that he’d failed yet another audition. Not that it mattered anymore. Duty was calling. “Hello? … When?” After getting the details from Shiho, Shinichi hung up and made to exit the room. “Jeff killed his first wife,” were his parting words as he stalked out of the audition room.

“Thank you,” the director called after him, trading incredulous looks with his fellow casting directors.

 

LOCATION: Downtown Los Angeles – Bar Parking Lot

Heiji Hattori huffed as he threw a second unconscious body of a gang member on top of the gangbanger’s car and faced the last man in the group that had made the mistake of picking a fight with the hitter. Bastard even had a gun drawn after seeing how easily Heiji had dispatched his friends. Couldn’t a guy go to a bar in LA and have a drink in peace without getting into a fight with thugs?

The two stared each other down for a moment, gauging how they were going to take the other out, when a phone started ringing.

“That you or me?” Heiji asked, never taking his eyes off the thug.

The guy looked unsure as the phone continued to ring.

“Could be important,” Heiji said, face neutral. “Does yer mommy have yer number?”

The man looked down at his pocket. Big mistake. Heiji grabbed the gun, punched the guy in the neck, and down went wanna-be-Rambo, choking. He unloaded the gun’s clip and tossed it aside before pulling out his phone, answering it before it could go to voice mail. Good thing too. It was Shiho. Then again, only members of the team had this particular phone’s number.

“Yeah?” He answered. “…Nah, nothin’. Why?”

 

LOCATION: Los Angeles – The Getty Museum

A guard was walking down a hall of paintings in one of the galleries that had been closed off to the public while sections of it were being remodeled for the new exhibits going in. He examined the paintings as he passed them, pausing in front of one of his favorites. It was one of the many that were being traded to another museum for different paintings that would be displayed in the new gallery exhibit. He turned to look at a few of the other paintings, but when he turned to look back at his favorite one last time he found it missing.

His heart stopped for a moment, only to jump when he heard what sounded like a cellphone ring above his head.

“Kid,” a young man’s voice answered promptly.

In the air vent above the art gallery, Kid giggled at the shocked look on the guard’s face. “No, Miyano-chan, I’m not laughing at you.”

After receiving details on where to meet, Kid took pity on the guard, dropping a smoke bomb to blind him and put the painting back. It was pretty, but not his style. He’d just wanted to see if he could lift the painting with the guard present.

 

LOCATION: L.A. Office Building – Leverage Inc. Headquarters

Heiji, Kid and Shinichi looked around as they exited the elevator and headed down the hall towards the office that Shiho had instructed them to meet at. They were excited. They hadn’t pulled a job together since a small stint in London where they’d helped a couple get back at a pharmaceutical company that had been marketing a bad product that was responsible for their daughter’s death. It had been a simple and easy, but satisfying con that left the company bankrupt.

They’d all been exploring, doing their own things, and getting to know the L.A. area after they came over to the U.S. while waiting for Shiho and Saguru to find them their next job and set up a base of operations. They hadn’t expected it to be an actual office space, however.

“So what’d ya do with yer money?” Heiji asked, just to start a conversation.

“From the first job?” Kid asked.

“Yeah.”

“I put all that money away in a Swiss bank account,” Kid shrugged.

“Millions ‘a dollars and ya didn’t buy anythin’?” Heiji asked incredulously. The guy was a renowned art and jewel thief. He could have bought all the expensive and shiny jewels and gems and works of art that he wanted.

“I don’t like stuff,” Kid grinned. “I like money.”

“I bought a little retirement home. An island,” Shinichi told them.

“Nice,” Heiji and Kid said.

“In Fiji,” Shinichi clarified, then paused for a moment and grinned. “And Hawaii… and another in New York.”

“What about you, Hattori?” Kid asked. “What did you do with your millions?”

They’d finally reached the door. There was a small envelope taped to it with Shinichi’s name written on it. Shinichi took the envelope and opened it. There were three keys inside. After taking one for himself, he gave the other two keys to Kid and Heiji.

“Yeah,” Heiji snorted. “I’m not ‘bout ta tell two known thieves what I did with a multi-million dollar payout.”

“Why? Don’t you trust us?” Shinichi asked with a playful pout while Kid snickered.

Heiji only gave them a baleful glare, waiting for Shinichi to open the door. Inside, a sign in the main lobby greeted them with the words: Leverage Consulting & Associates. The three looked around in interest at the very nice and professional looking office space they’d just entered.

“Okay,” Shinichi said, nodding. Not what he was expecting, but it would certainly do.

“I don’ get it,” Heiji frowned.

“What is this?” Kid asked.

That was when Shiho walked in, appearing from further inside the office carrying three file folders, handing one to each of them.

“This, gentlemen, is our new cover story,” she told them. “Welcome to Leverage Consulting and Associates, founded in 1913 by the great William J. Leverage the Third.”

With a small smirk, she pointed to a painting on the wall next to them of an older man that greatly resembled Saguru. Kid and Heiji almost collapsed, they were laughing so hard.

“Hakuba is going to kill you,” Shinichi chuckled.

“D-did ya paint that?” Heiji managed to ask between giggle fits.

“I got bored,” Shiho shrugged. “I’m told I have a talent.”

“Very nice job, Miyano-chan,” Kid snickered.

Shiho smiled, happy with their reactions. She’d spent the last few weeks getting the entire office together. Saguru had given her free reign when it came to picking an office space and had trusted her judgment with the décor.

“Now, if you’re done laughing your heads off,” Shiho said, moving to give them a grand tour of the offices, “lets get back to business. Now, Leverage Inc. is squeaky clean. All corporate taxes are on record as being paid for the last ninety years. All of your identities as partners are covered, your payroll taxes are paid, and you guys have pension plans and dental. In your folders you’ll find your employment records, case files and company newsletters.”

“Wow,” Shinichi said, impressed. “You went into a lot of detail. These are FBI, CIA, MI6 detailed quality covers.”

“That’s the whole point of being thorough,” Shiho told him. “I have no interest in being deported back to Japan. I actually like it here.”

“Hey!” Kid cried, beaming as he shoved his folder under Heiji’s nose. “Last year I won the sack race at the 4th of July picnic. Cool!”

“Will ya git that outta my face,” Heiji grumbled, swatting at Kid with his own folder.

“Now,” Shiho said, regaining their attention as they passed a series of doors. “These are your offices. You can bring in whatever you’d like, like a photo or little knick-knacks, or a plant. Plants are nice provided you remember to water them. _Nothing_ illegal, like stolen contraband, Kid.”

“I know that,” Kid pouted. “I’m not stupid you know.”

“Miyano-san, I can’t believe that you spent your share of the cash on all of this,” Shinichi said, though he was very impressed with the set up.

“Me?” Shiho scoffed. “Like hell I did. Hakuba-san paid for all of this with what little he had left and set aside after giving the rest away.”

“Whoa,” Heiji cried, stopping in his tracks. “Ya mean he gave it all away?”

“Yes,” Shiho nodded. “Most of it went to various children’s hospitals and cancer research programs.”

It got quiet for a moment, as it always did when what happened to Saguru’s daughter was even hinted at.

“But _this_ ,” Shiho said, breaking the awkward moment. Now she was excited. This had been her main project for most of the time she’d been setting up the offices. “ _This_ is my masterpiece.”

She slid open a pair of doors to a conference room. When the doors opened lights flickered on revealing the blacked out room’s interior. Inside was a long table with many comfortable leather-backed office swivel chairs around it. One wall was dedicated to a large bank of flat screens.

“Nice,” Shinichi said, whistling in admiration at the set up.

“Sweet,” Heiji grinned.

“Long version or short?” Shiho asked, barely containing her pride and excitement.

“Short.”

“Short version.”

“Shortest.”

Well that figured, didn’t it? But not to be denied, Shiho launched into her explanation, powering up the screens with a remote control and put the system through its paces as she explained all the features. She was in her element.

“Photo and video forensics programs, back doors into every electronic banking system in the world, running heuristic data crawls over all the news sites to find our clients… Oh! Also…”

“This is the short version?” Kid muttered, head already spinning with the techno talk. Ok, he got it. Very techy and high end and impressive.

“…facial recognition database tied into CIA, NSA, FBI, and MI6. But, the real pièce de résistance,” Shiho said before turning on the various TV packages. The boys immediately perked up after zoning out through her techno babble. “Direct TV HD Ultimate Premium Package. We got everything from daytime television to sports. We have all the major channels including HBO, CBS, NBC, ABC, and the Home Shopping Network. I even thought to include the Total Sports Package for you guys. We have the NFL, NBA, and I even threw in a little bit of hockey for the heck of it.”

“Wow,” Heiji said, almost drooling over all the games playing. Shinichi was rather entranced by an intense soccer game that was playing on the top left screen.

“All right, stop kicking the tires,” Saguru’s voice suddenly said, and then the leader man himself was suddenly standing there in the doorway, smiling in amusement. He held up a flash drive. “Want to take her for a spin?”

Ten minutes later the team was seated around the conference table watching the end of Alex’s video.

“Our client is the cameraman. Corporal Alex Rider. He says that the Storm Breaker contractors spooked and started firing,” Saguru said when the clip was over.

“5.56 NATO rounds mixed in with some 9 mils from tha sub-machine guns. Insurgents woulda used AK-47s with 7.62 ammo. It has more of a… crack,” Heiji said, hitting the back of his hand into his palm. “Contractors shot ‘em up all right.”

“Did you just ID the weapon from the gunshot sound?” Kid asked, amazed.

“It has a very distinctive sound,” Heiji said, shrugging.

“Right,” Shiho said, changing the screen to show a series of records. “Storm Breaker Security is pretty hard core. It’s a Billion dollar company with fat government contracts everywhere the U.S. has troops. Their CEO is Herod Sayle. He’s very paranoid and very professional.”

“Hold on here,” Heiji said, interrupting. “I want ta get this clear, right now. This is a private army yer talking ‘bout takin’ on. They got their own intel assets and a lot of trigger pullers.”

“Yes,” Saguru agreed, “and lobbyists in every office in Washington D.C. The problem with a cover-up is all the paperwork it takes to keep the lies straight.”

“Like internal e-mails, memos,” Shiho said.

“Exactly.” Saguru nodded. “So let’s go to work.”

He got up from his chair and the rest of the team got up and followed him out of the conference room.

“So, we steal the evidence and threaten to expose them,” Shinichi mused.

“Blackmail,” Kid grinned.

“Yes, but just enough blackmail to pay for Rider’s rehab, and maybe a couple million more in damages.”

“It’ll never hold up in court,” Heiji pointed out. “Ya know that.”

“Ah,” Saguru said, smiling, “but that’s why Corporal Rider is lucky. He doesn’t have lawyers. He has thieves.”

The team smiled, exiting the office, ready to get to work. Saguru held the door for them. He then just so happened to look up and noticed the painting.

“Miyano-san!”


	2. Cover Up

LOCATION: Storm Breaker Security L.A. Office Building

Heiji grumbled, straightening his tie one more time before collecting his serving tray loaded with champagne flutes and made his way into the party room, passing a sign that read: “Storm Breaker Security Welcomes Congressman Anthony Horowitz. Private Party. Tickets Required.” He spotted Saguru among the guests wearing a nice tux.

“Next time, I wear tha suit,” he growled as he passed the blond, heading towards Shinichi who was on the other side of the room.

“Sayle is here,” Shinichi reported, dressed in a suit of his own. “I’ll make contact.”

Shinichi took a glass from Heiji as they passed each other.

“Good,” Saguru said, spotting Sayle as well. “See what you can get out of him. Kid, Miyano-san, time to hit his office.”

 

LOCATION: Roof Top

Kid and Shiho were up on the roof decked out in all black and connected to repelling gear. Kid was going through his final checks when Saguru gave them the go-ahead.

“I have to head back to the office. I just remembered something,” Shiho said nervously after peering over the building’s edge.

“What?” Kid asked, adjusting Shiho’s harness.

“I just remembered gravity,” Shiho said, an edge in her voice.

“Relax~” Kid grinned. “I designed this rig myself. The line is carbon fiber. Five point harness. Weight support here, here,” he tapped both her shoulders “and here,” tapped her chest, “auto-breaking resistance on the main pulley back here,” he finished, tapping the small of her back.

“So it’s tested?” Shiho asked, her tension easing just a bit. When he put it like that, it sure sounded safe.

“Not yet,” Kid said, making another adjustment to hide his smile. She was too easy to tease.

“Not yet?” Shiho snapped. “When the hell were you going to test it?”

“Now,” Kid said as he gave his lovely companion a small push off the roof.

Shiho gasped as she stumbled forward and over the roof’s edge. Kid jumped after her in a more controlled dive. He’d fed out the line enough so that she would slow a couple floors above and then stop right outside the windows of their target floor. Shiho was clinging to the line with a white-knuckle grip by the time her descent slowed.

“Do that again, Kid, and I’ll kill you,” she hissed at him once she was capable of words. “And trust me when I say that not even Hakuba-san will be able to find your corpse.”

 

LOCATION: Private Party

Saguru sighed, able to figure out only too well what had happened. “Okay, Miyano-san. Kid. There are guard sweeps every ten minutes. That means you have nine minutes and twenty-eight seconds.”

“ _Working on it_ ,” came Shiho’s very angry sounding response. Saguru did not envy Kid in the least.

Across the room Herod Sayle was speaking with Congressman Horowitz and Shinichi was approaching them.

“Storm Breaker is going to be very happy with the new Appropriations Bill,” Sayle was saying.

“Pardon me, Congressman,” Shinichi said, smoothly cutting into the conversation. He was speaking with a British accent he’d perfected over the years after his time in England working alongside Saguru at Cambridge and during his short stint with U.N.I.S. “Lee Williams. I’m with Executive Orders.”

“They’re a London-based Defense Contractor,” Sayle explained to the Congressman before turning his attention to Shinichi. “Herod Sayle. Executive Orders doesn’t work for the U.S. government.”

“Yet,” Shinichi grinned. “Perhaps we can do something about that.”

“Yes, well, it was very nice to meet you. Now you’ll have to excuse me,” Horowitz said, walking away.

“You’re not poaching are you?” Sayle frowned, eyes narrowing at Shinichi. “Appropriations Bill 718? Those are our defenses contracts, so don’t even bother.”

“Mr. Sayle,” Shinichi tutted, turning on the charm. He held out a hand. “Surely there’s enough war to go around.”

Sayle shook his hand, staring him in the eye before smiling.

“Miyano-san, what’s this Bill they’re talking about?” Saguru asked, watching Shinichi make amiable chatter with Sayle.

 

LOCATION: Sayle’s Office

Shiho was sitting at Sayle’s computer typing away while Kid was searching around the office.

“I’d love to give you an answer, Hakuba-san, but this man has an RFID security card reader on his power supply so I’m a little busy at the moment,” Shiho muttered, eyes narrowing as she concentrated on getting around the computer’s security system.

Kid was feeling a little bored as he searched the place, finding nothing until he moved a painting aside.

“Really?” the thief scoffed. “So old school. I found a safe behind a painting. How cliché can you get?”

“ _Focus_ ,” Saguru’s voice hissed in Kid’s ear.

Rolling his eyes, Kid set to work on cracking the safe. His eyebrows nearly shot up into his hairline when he realized what he was dealing with.

“Ok, not so cliché,” he remarked. “You’re not going to believe this, you guys. It’s voice activated.”

 

LOCATION: Private Party

“All right, one problem at a time,” Saguru sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose. “Kudo, I’m going in. We need to get Sayle’s RFID card to Hattori.”

Across the room, Shinichi was still making conversation with Sayle.

“My company’s focused on meeting senators, but I’m thinking congressmen.”

“You know the great thing about congressmen?” Sayle asked. “Fifty, a hundred grand well spent will get one elected, but then once they’re in, the incumbency rate is over ninety-five percent so you can get an average eighteen, twenty years’ use out of one of them. In these uncertain times, buying a United States congressman is one of the best investments a corporation can make.”

“ _Ugh,_ ” Kid scoffed. “ _I think I just threw up in my mouth a little bit. I’m a professional criminal and even I find that disturbing_.”

Saguru ignored Kid’s comment and took an appetizer off one of the trays waiters and waitresses were carrying around and dipped it in some sauce before moving towards Shinichi and Sayle.

“We’ve been providing military advisers, internationally, for over forty years,” Sayle continued.

“Helping rebels overthrow their governments, Mr. Sayle?” Shinichi asked, eyes lidded in amusement while Saguru passed behind them, wiping a little of the sauce on his appetizer across the back of Sayle’s jacket.

“No,” Sayle shook his head, but a sharp grin appeared. “Overthrowing the government is too harsh a way to describe it. We just help them along. A kind of collaboration.”

Saguru threw the appetizer away and grabbed a napkin, heading back towards Shinichi and Sayle.

“Oh? Is that what you Americans call it?” Shinichi asked, smirking, turning his attention to Saguru as he approached them.

“Sorry, but it appears that you have a little dip on your jacket, sir,” Saguru said, pointing to the smear of sauce. He was speaking in a southern American accent, much to the team’s amusement. Shinichi had wondered why Saguru hadn’t posed as the representative from Executive Orders, but Saguru had made the point that he needed Shinichi to distract Sayle so that Saguru could help the others run the operation. It was still funny to listen to Saguru speak in an accent that wasn’t British, however. It was only through experience and skill that Shinichi managed to keep a straight face.

While Saguru had Sayle distracted with his jacket, Shinichi lifted the man’s wallet and removed the RFID card before putting the wallet back.

“Can you believe this?” Sayle sighed. “First day I’ve worn this. Thanks.”

“Lets see if we can get someone to help you with that,” Shinichi said, looking around a bit before spotting Heiji nearby. “Excuse me? Garcon?”

“Yes, sir?” Heiji asked, a polite smile in place as he approached. He spoke with an American accent as well, one more polished than his usual speech.

“I was wondering if you could help us,” Shinichi said, slipping the RFID card to Heiji under the tray he was carrying. “We seem to have gotten a little stain on this jacket.”

“Oh, look at that,” Heiji tisked, sympathetically. “Let me take care of that for you.”

“If you could splash a little soda water on it,” Shinichi was saying.

“Ah! Hold on a moment,” Sayle said, taking his wallet out of his jacket. “Let me keep this. Man of my position shouldn’t forget his wallet. That’s embarrassing.”

Shinichi and Saguru chuckled along with him while Heiji walked away with the jacket and RFID card. He set the tray he was carrying down at one of the tables before sneaking off somewhere private so that no one could see what he was doing.

“There’s no magnetic strip,” Heiji frowned after examining the card.

 

LOCATION: Sayle’s Office

“That’s because it emits a little radio frequency,” Shiho told him. “Just put it up next to the phone I gave you.”

She placed her own phone next to the RFID reader on Sayle’s desk. After a few seconds the display screen said, "receiving code data.” When the transfer was finished she easily got through the rest of the computer’s security measures. “I’m in.”

Kid, meanwhile was still messing with his own phone and the safe’s voice lock.

“ _Kid, what’s the status on the voice lock?_ ” Saguru asked.

“I’ve been sampling Sayle’s speech, but I still need a few more sounds,” Kid reported.

“ _How many?_ ”

“I only need the sounds, puh, tuh, oo, ah, eh, oh, ah, uh, ke, kuh, a, ef.”

 

LOCATION: Private Party

“Oh, only those,” Saguru huffed sarcastically. He’d excused himself from Sayle and Shinichi’s company and was back to being inconspicuous in a corner of the party room. “Hattori.”

“I’m on it,” Heiji said, grabbing two appetizer trays and headed back towards Shinichi and Sayle. “Hello.”

“Ohh, yum,” Shinichi said, eyeing the dishes Heiji presented them with.

“Appetizer, sirs?” Heiji asked, looking at Sayle.

“Sure,” Sayle shrugged. “What have you got?”

“I’ve got the pâté d’escargot avec bière d'Argentine and,” Heiji frowned at the other dish, “what looks like old duck, kind of greasy.”

“I guess I’ll have the first one,” Sayle said.

“Of course,” Heiji said, offering him the second tray with the “duck.”

“Well?” Sayle said, looking at Heiji expectantly. “May I have some?”

“The greasy duck?” Heiji frowned.

“Oh, no,” Shinichi said, wrinkling his nose. “I wouldn’t have the greasy duck.”

“No, I wouldn’t suggest it,” Heiji nodded in agreement.

“No,” Sayle huffed in exasperation.” The other one.”

Heiji raised an eyebrow, his expression one of polite confusion.

“The pâté d’escargot with the bière d'Argentine!” Sayle practically shouted.

“Excellent choice, sir,” Heiji grinned, offering the man the first tray.

“Who is this clown?” Sayle scoffed, addressing Shinichi as he took an appetizer.

“ _Pretty good_ ,” Kid’s voice snickered over the comm. link. “ _Got most of them. Okay, now all I need is ef, uh, and kuh._ ”

“Wait for it,” Heiji said, smirking to himself as he turned away from Shinichi and Sayle.

Sayle took a bite of his appetizer and promptly spat it out.

“This is shrimp! It’s shrimp you stupid fuck!” he yelled after Heiji’s retreating back.

Kid’s snickering returned over the line. “ _There we go~!”_

“Okay, Kudo, start the walk away,” Saguru said, smiling to himself. Heiji winked at him as he passed by.

“I was wondering if I could drop by your office sometime?” Shinichi asked.

“Anytime,” Sayle said, smiling politely now that he’d regained his composure.

Shinichi nodded farewell and headed towards Horowitz.

“Kudo, where are you going?” Saguru frowned.

“Playing a hunch,” Shinichi mused.

“Fine, but play it fast. Miyano-san, what have you got? You have three minutes.”

 

LOCATION: Sayle’s Office

“Too much,” Shiho frowned. “They have all of Rider’s medical records. Which, sure, is pretty normal, but they’ve got psych evaluations, high school records, and they’re reading his e-mails.”

Kid joined her, sitting on the edge of the desk with a folder he’d taken from the safe.

“They’re also tapping his phones,” Kid reported. “I’ve got surveillance photos of Rider here from the hospital yesterday.”

“Why spend so much money watching our client?” Shiho asked. “I mean, investigations of the shooting were done months ago.”

 

LOCATION: Private Party

Saguru felt his stomach drop, thinking back to the trucks they’d seen in Rider’s video. “Because it’s not about the shooting. The cover-up has nothing to do with the shooting. It’s about the trucks Alex saw and recorded on his camera.”

Putting aside the feeling of unease that Shinichi felt upon hearing Saguru’s statement he approached Horowitz. “Congressman.”

“Yes?” Horowitz said, smiling politely at Shinichi.

“Your support on the next Appropriations Bill would be very helpful.” Shinichi smiled back.

“We’ve already earmarked the no-bid contracts for Storm Breaker. They deserve it.”

“Nobody’s perfect,” Shinichi shrugged. “Look at all the trouble they had with the shooting in Najaf.”

“I’m sorry,” Horowitz said, shifting a bit – a sign of nerves. “I don’t really follow that sort of news. I just review the contracts.”

“Of course,” Shinichi said, bowing his head.

“Excuse me,” Horowitz said, hurrying away.

“Lets go,” Saguru hissed at Shinichi from behind. “Kid, Miyano-san, bug out and head back to the office. Kudo, Hattori and I are going to the hospital.”

“ _Do you need to talk to Rider again?_ ” Kid asked.

“The shooting wasn’t an accident,” Saguru said softly, but urgently. “Alex, isn’t a victim, he’s a witness. Does Storm Breaker strike you as the kind of company to leave a witness alive?”

Heiji rejoined them while Saguru was speaking and traded a worried look with Shinichi as they followed Saguru out of the building.

 

LOCATION: Los Angeles General Hospital Hallway

“He’s not in his damn room,” Saguru huffed in agitation as he and Shinichi hurried out of the room assigned to Alex Rider.

Elsewhere in the hospital Heiji was putting on a doctor’s coat he’d taken from a now unconscious intern.

“I’m checking all the corridors that are connected to the exterior doors,” he reported.

“Where could he be?” Shinichi asked. “You don’t think they got to him already, do you?”

“There were no signs of a disturbance in his room,” Saguru shook his head.

He frowned, trying to think of where Alex could be. Then he got an idea and hurried off towards the rehab room he’d first met Alex in. Sure enough Alex was there, alone practicing walking with support from the parallel handbars.

“Sorry, doc,” Alex huffed, “I know it’s closed but…” Then he caught sight of who had entered. “James?”

“We have to get you out of here,” Saguru said, grabbing a wheelchair and moved it in front of Alex. “ _Now_.”

“Why?”

“Storm Breaker. Come on.”

Shinichi helped Saguru get Alex into the chair.

“Friend of yours, James?” Alex asked, noticing that Saguru wasn’t alone. “Alex Rider.”

“Shinichi Kudo,” Shinichi smiled. “Lets get you some place safe.”

Elsewhere, Heiji scanned the hallways and passed two large men in doctor’s coats.

“Hakuba, get ‘im clear, I can’t find-!”

“Excuse me!” Opps. Busted. Heiji had just passed one of the nurse’s stations. “Do you work on this floor?”

“I, uh…” Smooth, Heiji. “What floor is this? I’m in orthopedics, so…”

It was at that moment that Heiji happened to look down at the nurse’s feet and saw that she was wearing Crocks. The two men he’d just passed had been wearing boots. Shit. Heiji spun around and hurried after them.

“Hey!” the nurse shouted at him, but he ignored her.

Further down the hall Saguru, Shinichi and Alex were just reaching the elevators but so had the two men. Saguru noticed them checking rooms and Heiji could be seen racing towards them silently from behind. One of the men spotted Alex and pulled out a knife.

“Get the elevator,” Saguru ordered Shinichi.

Thinking fast, Saguru grabbed a nearby gurney and pushed it down the hallway to block the two men’s path. That’s when Heiji reached them. The hitter shoved one of the men into the wall and then knocked the second one into the gurney, flipping him to the ground. The first man came back at Heiji with a knife, but Heiji deflected it easily and punched him in the gut. He spun around in time to dodge a second knife from the other man who’d recovered from being flipped over the gurney. Grabbing an IV pole, Heiji deflected a second jab from the blade and used the pole to knock the man to the ground and punched him several times to incapacitate him. That was one down for sure.

“James!” Alex cried out, pushing a defibrillator cart towards Saguru.

Saguru grabbed the paddles. Heiji saw what the others had in mind, so when the other guy got up and tried to get him with the knife again, he grabbed the other guy’s arm and pushed him in Saguru’s direction.

“Hello,” Saguru smiled, pressing the defibrillator paddles to the man’s chest when he stopped right in front of him, setting off the charge. The man went flying and was rendered unconscious. It was at that moment that the elevator doors finally dinged and opened behind Shinichi and Alex.

“Go,” Saguru ordered, holding the elevator doors open while Heiji took a bag off one of the attackers before joining them.

 

LOCATION: Leverage Conference Room

Heiji emptied the contents of the bag he’d taken from one of the attackers onto the table. There was a money clip, a pack of cigarettes, a note, another knife, a pair of sunglasses and a gun. With a sneer of disgust Heiji unloaded the gun and Shiho checked the serial numbers. Shinichi picked up the note and read it aloud.

“I can’t live with the pain, I’m so sorry… this is a suicide note,” Shinichi scowled.

“And the gun is registered in Alex Rider’s name. The bill of sale belongs to a gunshop a mile from his house,” Shiho reported.

“I have Alex squared away in a safe house,” Saguru reported as he joined them looking tired and wary. He was holding a bottle of liquor and a glass.

“Play time is over, Hakuba,” Heiji frowned. “It’s only a matter a’ time ‘fore they come after us. Tha tall one, tha way he used a knife, ex-Marine, prob’bly Force Recon.”

“You ID’d a guy off his knife-fighting style?” Kid asked, eyebrows raised.

“It’s a very distinctive style,” Heiji snapped.

Saguru sighed, pouring himself a glass of liquor before placing it on the table and taking a swig from the actual bottle.

“For later,” he said when he saw Shinichi’s incredulous look. Shinichi only wrinkled his nose in disgust.

“I didn’t sign up for any of this,” Shiho said softly. “What I did before… nobody got hurt.”

“I mostly stole jewels and works of art for a living,” Kid said, frowning.

“I never actually hurt anybody with my cons,” Shinichi said, crossing his arms.

“I actually hurt people, so…” Heiji shrugged.

“Hakuba, if anything had happened to this Rider guy-” Shinichi started but Saguru cut him off.

“You know, you guys called on me,” Saguru snapped. “You remember? You asked me to run the team, agreed to play by my rules. Now walk out if you have a problem with that. Walk out any day if you have a problem with that. It’s simple.”

They all traded hesitant looks.

“We finish this one,” Heiji said at last.

“Just one,” Kid nodded.

“…So how do we hit them?” Shiho asked after a moment of silence.

“Congressman Horowitz,” Shinichi sighed, not looking happy. “He’s our in. Looked me straight in the eye and told me he’d never even heard of the shooting.”

“So?” Kid asked.

“Guy was fidgety and when a person looks someone dead in the eye like that unblinkingly, you know they’re making the effort to get a point of some kind across. Especially if it’s a lie or a man that has something to hide. Funny how people think that that works. His stare was too intense. Word of advice? Blink at least once if you’re going to lie and keep a relaxed posture.”

“All right,” Saguru sighed. “Horowitz is Sayle’s pet Congressman. Let’s see if we can get him to bite. The best way to get two people to reveal a secret is to get them to turn on each other.”

Shiho, Kid and Heiji nodded before leaving. Saguru watched them go, taking another swig from his bottle. With a scowl, Shinichi got up from his seat and snatched the bottle from Saguru.

“Shall I put this away for you?” he all but snapped as he left.

“Didn’t sound like a question,” Saguru called after him.

Once Shinichi was gone, Saguru picked up the glass he’d set down earlier and took a sip from that.

“Yer gonna drink yourself ta death one a’ these days.”

Saguru jumped, not expecting anyone to have stayed behind. He turned around and saw Heiji lounging in his chair as if he’d never left; packing away the stuff that had been in the attacker’s bag.

“Maybe,” Saguru sighed, setting the glass back down and took a seat at the table.

“Ya do that when things git personal,” Heiji noted, nodding at the half-empty glass. “Ya know our client, don’t ya? Ya’ve been callin’ ‘im Alex, and he called ya James back at tha hospital. Ya close?”

“No,” Saguru shook his head. “But our mothers know each other from their University days before they got married. The Riders moved here to the U.S. and Alex and I didn’t meet until I went in to speak to him about the job.”

Heiji nodded, standing back up.

“Don’t git too drunk, man,” he said, “or else I’ll tell Kudo where ya keep yer stash of hard liquor.”

Saguru snorted, a small smile forming on his lips. “I have a high tolerance. I’m not even buzzed yet.”

“Keep it tha’ way,” Heiji nodded. “Ya can get smashed afterwards.”

“Noted.” Saguru nodded, downing the rest of his glass.

Heiji shook his head, but left the other man alone.


	3. Playing the Field

LOCATION: Washington D.C. – Federal Building

Shinichi spotted Congressman Horowitz and moved to intercept him on his way to his office.

“Congressman Horowitz!”

The elder man looked up from a folder he was perusing, taking his readers off as he looked for the person that had addressed him. “Oh, uh… Executive Orders, the European company from the fundraiser, correct?”

“That’s right,” Shinichi said, flashing his best charming smile. “You know, Congressman, European countries would be willing to aid the United States in foreign operations if they know that European companies are going to reap some of the benefits. Some help in the Appropriations bill-”

“I support American companies,” Horowitz said, cutting Shinichi’s pitch.

“Like Storm Breaker?”

“Like Storm Breaker. And they support, uh, the country.”

Shinichi didn’t miss the slight hesitation in Horowitz’s speech. The congressman knew exactly what sort of things his supporters at Storm Breaker did.

“I didn’t pick you at random, Congressman,” Shinichi said, getting to business. “Storm Breaker can be a fickle friend. Rumor has it they’re looking for some fresh blood.”

Horowitz looked over at Shinichi shrewdly, suspicion and doubt reflecting in his eyes.

“You should look out for the signs, Congressman,” Shinichi said gravely. “Missed phone calls, no more little favors…”

“Those are the signs that your wife is cheating on you,” Horowitz chuckled.

“That’s right.” Shinichi grinned sharply.

“And what am I supposed to do when that happens?”

“Play the field,” Shinichi said, handing the man a business card Shiho had doctored for him before leaving L.A.

They’d reached the congressman’s office now and after saying good-bye, Shinichi smirked inwardly with satisfaction as he saw Horowitz stare at the card before pocketing it.

 

LOCATION: Los Angeles – Herod Sayle’s Office

While Shinichi was in D.C., speaking with Congressman Horowitz, Saguru was meeting with Sayle in his office at Storm Breaker HQ.

“I remember you,” Sayle said as he let Saguru enter. “From the fundraiser. Please, have a seat.”

Saguru reclined in a comfortable slouch in an office chair while Sayle moved to sit behind his large oak desk.

“Thomas Burnside. You can all me Tom.” Saguru was speaking in the Southern drawl he’d adopted at the fundraiser. It wasn’t his favorite accent, but it was one he was most comfortable with using in a con like this one.

“You don’t work for Congressman Horowitz, do you?”

“I do not,” Saguru said, shaking his head. “No, I work for Congresswoman Starbright from upstate.”

“We already have enough friends on the Appropriations Committee,” Sayle said dismissively.

“Well, I’m here because Congresswoman Starbright wanted me to let you know that, she’s open to discussions now that Congressman Horowitz has gone soft on you.”

“Horowitz always delivers.”

“Horowitz told my boss to her face that he’s tired of covering for you,” Saguru said pointedly.

Sayle frowned, fiddling with a pen at his desk. “We’ve backed him for years.”

“Well, Horowitz wanted my boss to meet with this man from some British company. The, ah…”

“Executive Orders?” Sayle guessed, eyes shining with anger and suspicion. Good. Shinichi had left an impression and Sayle had already started to suspect something was afoot with his congressman.

“I’ll tell ya what,” Saguru said, leaning forward with an earnest expression on his face, “if your earmarks and your no-bid contracts are still in that Appropriations Bill then you know that he’s still yer boy, but if they’re not, well, Congresswoman Starbright would be open to enjoying the same favors that Horowitz has enjoyed for all these years. But, of course, Horowitz appears to have some new friends now.”

It was quiet for a moment. Then Sayle gave Saguru a tight, polite smile before rising to his feet. Saguru was quick to do the same, accepting the offered handshake.

“Thanks very much for coming, Tom,” Sayle said.

“Pleasure,” Saguru smiled politely back.

 

LOCATION: Leverage Conference Room

“Congressman Horowitz is very careful,” Shiho informed Heiji as they waited for the next part of their plan to start. “No direct bribes, but he’s renovating his house and so far he’s received over $600,000 worth of work for a little over fifty grand.”

She brought up pictures of Horowitz’s grand house on the screens.

“Storm Breaker owns tha contracting company, huh?” Heiji mused, looking over the information.

“Sayle’s working through three shell companies, but yeah, he does. And Horowitz loves his house. Just check out his web browsing habits,” Shiho huffed, brining up a website for wood paneling. “Look here. The man spent three weeks picking out the perfect mahogany wood panels. This site is like wood porn.”

“Is his house finished?” Heiji asked.

“Not even close.”

Heiji smirked. “Can I barrow yer phone?”

“Where’s yours?” Shiho asked. “Didn’t I just give you yours back?”

“Left it in my car.” Heiji shrugged.

Shiho rolled her eyes, sliding her cell across the table to him.

Heiji glanced up at the webpage she still had up and dialed the number. “Hello? Yes, I’d like ta cancel delivery on some mahogany wood paneling, please. … Tha Horowitz house. Yeah, ya know what? Do me a favor, man, and just go ahead an’ cancel tha whole order. Yes sir.”

Heiji stepped out of the room just as Saguru was entering, back from his meeting with Sayle.

“What’s he up to?” he asked.

“Yanking the congressman’s chain,” Shiho said, smiling with amusement.

“All right,” Saguru nodded in approval. “Has Kid started his run yet?”

Shiho tapped away at her keyboard and brought up security camera footage from the Capital Building, blue prints for the building, and a little red dot that was tracking Kid’s progress. “Just now.”

 

LOCATION: Washington D.C. – The Capitol Building

Kid was dressed as a female cop, saluting another officer as she walked past him, turning down another hallway. She came back out of that same hallway seconds later dressed as a different woman in a dress suit carrying her jacket over an arm. She listened to the chatter over the airwaves back at the office.

“ _You know, Hakuba-san_ ,” Shiho was saying. “ _I still think it would be easier if I were to just hack the bill in the printer queue._ ”

“ _No. No computers_ ,” Saguru said in response. “ _Besides, the Bill is put into a wooden box on the congressional floor called the Hopper._ ”

“ _A wood- Hold on a minute,_ ” Shiho said sounding so incredulous and scandalized that Kid had to make sure that a smile didn’t appear on her face or let a snicker slip from her lips. “ _A wooden box?!_ ”

“ _A wooden box_ ,” Saguru answered solemnly.

“ _Wood?_ ” Shiho repeated. “ _They can put a man on the moon but all of their laws go into a wooden box_. _Ugh! Americans_.”

“ _What we need to do is get Sayle to believe that Horowitz is abandoning him. That Horowitz submitted an Appropriations Bill that doesn’t have any of the usual contracts for Strom Breaker, which means that we have to put our own pages into the Bill_ ,” Saguru said, moving the topic along and Kid snapped her attention back to her task.

She spotted a clerk and bumped into him, stealing his ID and stowed it away into her coat. Then she pulled out her edited copy of the new Appropriations Bill with the new pages that Saguru had just been talking about. Kid had grabbed the original earlier under the guise of the pretty clerk she was now pretending to be, volunteering to deliver it for the congressman’s secretary.

“ _That means the only place that we could get at it would be… ah! Okay_ ,” Shiho said, a note of understanding in her voice.

Kid kept her head down to hide a smirk as Shiho finally came to understand why Kid had traveled to D.C. with Shinichi. She flashed the badge she’d stolen at the security guards and walked into the Senate Room.

“ _That’s clever, Hakuba-san_.” Shiho was speaking again. “ _Anyone can break a law. Everyone’s done that. But to_ steal _a law…_ ”

Kid saw the camera for C-SPAN news that was recording the proceedings on the Senate floor. As she walked to the Hopper, she waved at the camera and put the partially fake bill into the box. She couldn’t resist saying, “The eagle has landed,” after she did so.

 

The Next Day

LOCATION: Leverage Conference Room

Shinichi and Kid were now back from D.C. and the team was gathering around the table, listening to an audio file of Horowitz and Sayle arguing.

“How was Washington?” Saguru asked Shinichi as he took a seat next to him.

“Oh, you know. Villains, conmen, wolves in sheep’s clothing,” Shinichi said, nonplus. “Felt right at home.”

“Oh, this is pretty good,” Saguru said, attention back on the audio recording. “Listen to this.”

“ _Don’t call me. This is your contractor’s problem_ ,” Sayle was saying.

“ _Oh please_ ,” Horowitz’s voice sneered back. “ _Let’s not pretend…_ ”

“ _You pulled all our earmarks from the Appropriations Bill,_ ” Sayle shot back.

“There’s about an hour of this, but here’s the high point,” Shiho said just before they heard Horowitz say, “ _Somebody screwed up. I’ve always been there for you. I called Manila, I cleared customs for you in Los Angeles and that was a risk._ ” Shiho paused the audio. “After that there’s… well, whatever you call the rich guys on telephones’ version of make-up sex, but, now we know that Storm Breaker makes a thousand shipments a month, but one ship through Manila, right after the shooting, linked to phone records from the congressman.”

She threw up several documents onto the screens, scrolling through them before stopping on a picture of the L.A. harbor.

“Their shipments come through here. Now somewhere in this madness is container 541. It’s currently sitting at the Port of Los Angeles.”

“What’s in it?” Kid asked.

“No idea,” Shiho shrugged, “but it’s moving in two days, headed to the main Storm Breaker storage facility in Kansas.”

“Whatever’s in the container is the reason they tried to kill Alex,” Saguru muttered, his expression unreadable.

“Wanted ta tie up all tha loose ends before they tucked this one away at home base,” Heiji mused, casting Saguru a worried look.

“What do you ship in a crate from Iraq?” Shinichi asked, frowning.

“Something worth killing for,” Saguru said darkly, getting up from the conference table. He needed a drink. “Miyano-san, locate that container.”

The team traded concerned looks as they watched him leave.

 

LOCATION: Port of Los Angeles

Kid and Heiji were following Shiho after sneaking past the guard and were looking for container 541, while Saguru and Shinichi were waiting by the team’s car where they’d left them just a little ways away from the gate to the port, watching the guards. There had been no need for the whole team to go, and it wouldn’t hurt to have the two on standby in case they needed to make a quick getaway.

“ _How’s security?_ ” Saguru asked.

“Dockyard entrance is no problem, but…” Heiji answered, trailing off as he ducked out of sight with Kid and Shiho as another armed patrol of Storm Breaker Guards passed by. They moved off and behind their former position, he spotted container 541.

“There it is,” Heiji said, pointing so that Kid and Shiho knew where to look. He made a move towards the crate, but Shiho snatched his arm and tugged him back with surprising strength for a woman of her height and build.

“Hold up, Rambo,” she huffed, pulling up an app on her cell phone, trying to detect any electronics in the area. “No lasers, no motion detectors, no vibration sensors, no… whoops,” she muttered.

“ _Whoops? What whoops?_ ” Saguru’s voice demanded over the comms.

“There’s a webcam,” Shiho reported. “I’m picking up its broadcast on my phone.”

“Oh, I see it,” Kid said, squinting. “Up on that pole by those storage containers. Should we move and come around behind it?”

Heiji rolled his eyes and walked off a ways, eyes sweeping the ground.

“No need,” Shiho told Kid. “I just have to spoof the IP address and overlay a digital duplicate over the WiFi…”

Finding what he was looking for, Heiji picked up a nice sized rock, returned to the others and lobbed it at the webcam, shattering the lens.

“Or that,” Kid grinned. “That works too.”

“C’mon, lets go,” Heiji huffed.

“Oh that’s not inconspicuous at all,” Shiho snapped. “I’m sorry it was too far away for you to punch. I’m sure that really frustrates you.”

Heiji only smiled cheekily back.

“ _Enough, you two_ ,” Saguru said firmly.

“ _Whatever guards are around will more than likely be coming back soon to inspect the camera once they’re informed it’s inoperative by whoever was monitoring it_ ,” Shinichi added.

Heiji didn’t look so cheeky anymore and they hurried over to the container where Kid wasted no time picking the lock. It took a full minute, however, because the lock was of a higher quality than what he usually dealt with. There was no doubt now in Kid’s mind that something really valuable was inside the container.

“What do you think is in there?” Shiho asked, as if reading Kid’s thoughts.

“Artifacts from Bagdad museums,” Kid guessed. “Maybe some from the Saddam palaces.”

“Nah,” Heiji said. “I bet its weapons. Lot of back ally arms dealing goin’ on in a war zone.”

It was at that moment that Kid popped the lock open and together he and Heiji pulled the doors open. They all paused in shock when they saw what was inside.

“…Money is good too,” Shiho said faintly as she stared at the container filled with pallets holding large organized shrink-wrapped cubes of stacked U.S. currancy.

Kid started forward in a daze and hugged the wall of money before turning around to face the other two, back reclined and arms spread against it, a mad grin forming as he let loose a giggle that set Shiho and Heiji’s nerves on edge.

That was when they heard the crunch of approaching footsteps on the gravel dirt and quickly shut the container and relocked it as it had been, but not before Kid cut into one of the cubes and grabbed several stacks of the money and stuffed it down his shirt. Then they made a mad scrabble up on top of a stack of containers a little ways away, laying down flat just as the security detail returned with some of the guards from the gate, one of them holding a monitor.

“Get some men up there to fix that webcam,” the lead Storm Breaker guard ordered to the unfortunate gate guard holding the monitor. “I want it working again in an hour. Move!”

The gate guard and his fellows scrambled away. It was slow and nerve-wracking, but once Kid deemed it safe, the three thieves climbed down the other side of the container they where hiding on top of and hurried back to Saguru and Shinichi.

 

LOCATION: Leverage Conference Room

The team was reassembled around the conference table staring at the stacks of money Kid had snatched and was now staring at reverently.

“Okay,” Shinichi sighed, picking up, flipping through, and then tossing aside a stack of the money. “That’s worth killing for.”

“Ultraviolet checks out,” Shiho reported, tapping away at her wireless keyboard. “And so does the paper, the watermarks, the ink, all of it. It all checks out.”

“There’s a whole container of it from Iraq of all places,” Shinichi frowned. “It has to be counterfeit.”

“Nope,” Kid smiled dreamily, rubbing some of the bills against his cheek. “It’s real. It feels real.”

“Knock it off, Kid. Somebody take that money from ‘im,” Heiji scowled. “He’s creepin’ me out.”

The other three ignored Kid and Heiji’s comment.

“I don’t know, what is this?” Shinichi asked. “Two? Three hundred million in U.S. currency? And what was it doing in Iraq of all places?”

“The Americans sent it there,” Saguru sighed.

“What?” Heiji asked, incredulously.

“At the beginning of the Iraq war,” Saguru said, going into lecture mode, “some American companies, like my old company, U.N.I.S., helped insure the largest currency transfer in history. Billions of American ones, fives and twenties – all cash – were sent to Iraq for reconstruction.”

“Bribes,” Heiji frowned.

“As needed.” Saguru shrugged. “Nine billion went missing.”

“Wait, _billion_?!” Shinichi asked, incredulously. “With nine zeros? Are you saying that nine _billion_ dollars of U.S. taxpayer money just disappeared?”

“So Storm Breaker has found and now gets a cut of the missing money. The day they go to move it, real soldiers see the transfer-”

“On ‘a tha contractors spooks and starts shootin’,” Heiji finishes.

“Yeah, but Corporal Rider didn’t see anything,” Kid frowned, looking troubled and was hugging the money to his chest as if seeking comfort.

“They don’t know that,” Saguru said quietly.

“I don’t get it,” Shiho frowned. “Storm Breaker is a billion dollar company. Why would they even care about this cash?”

“Because it _is_ cash,” Saguru explained. “Money is money. That’s one thing. But cash is a whole other thing. For all the money in the economy there is only about $500 in cash for every American.”

“These are untraceable small bills,” Shinichi mused. “Perfect for slush funds or home improvements for U.S. congressmen.”

“Or small time donors you know for re-election. There would be no electronic trail,” Shiho said, nodding as she realized what use cash money would be to a company like Storm Breaker.

“It’s money laundering,” Saguru declared.

“How so?” Shinichi asked, he and the others watching Saguru curiously as the blond picked up Shiho’s electronic pad, linking it to the screens so that they would show what he was drawing to illustrate his points.

“All right,” Saguru mused, drawing a square with a lightning bold in, writing “STORM BREAKER” below in the middle of the top half of the tablet. “Sayle uses the illegal cash to re-elect his congressman.” He drew an arrow pointing to the bottom right corner of the tablet and wrote “CONGRESSMAN” at its end, drawing a dollar sign above the arrow line. “Horowitz then gets him no bid contracts for government jobs.” He drew another arrow pointing left to the opposite side on the bottom half of the tablet where he wrote “NO BID CONTRACTS” and drew two dollar signs below that arrow line. “And the government pays for his services with legal money.” He finished his diagram drawing an arrow pointing back up to “STORM BREAKER” and three dollar signs. “There’s the circle, right there,” Saguru concluded.

“They turned the entire American government inta a money laundering scam,” Heiji huffed, looking like he wasn’t sure if he should be disgusted or impressed.

“That’s right,” Saguru said grimly.

“That… is brilliant,” Shiho said, shaking her head. “I’m impressed.”

Heiji made a face, deciding that he was disgusted with the whole affair.

“I never thought I’d say this, ever,” Shinichi sighed, “but that is just waaay too much money to steal.”

“No,” Saguru said gently. “You’re not going to steal it.”

The group turned to face him, all looking surprised.

“Don’t you remember?” Saguru asked, heart sinking just a bit. “You’re the good guys now. You’re going to give it back.”

Kid looked crushed and the other three didn’t look too pleased either, trading sad and doubting looks.


	4. Giving Back

LOCATION: Port of Los Angeles

The area was filled with guards from Storm Breaker. All of them were heavily armed as they patrolled around waiting for the time that the container would be moved. The head of security was a big man of German descent by the name of Hans Grin. Ever since the webcam had been broken two days ago, he and his men had double security around container 541. He didn’t know what was in the container that was so important it needed to be guarded, but it wasn’t his place to ask. He and his men were only in charge of making sure that the shipping container made it safely from L.A. to Kentucky.

Two of Grin’s men were standing guard in front of the container when they heard a commotion. A young man and woman appeared from around the stacks of containers a few rows down from their position carrying suitcases and were dressed like tourists on a Hawaiian cruise or something. The man was wearing blue Hawaiian print swim shorts and a white t-shirt with a row of surfboards across the chest, and around the back. The woman was in a pair of small denim shorts and a pink Hawaiian print tube top with a light yellow short-sleeved button-up over top that remained unbuttoned, but was tied off below her bust-line. She was also wearing large stylish black sunglasses and one of those big straw sun hats. Both had the same sandy blond hair and were wearing sandals. They appeared to be brother and sister and were arguing. Loudly.

“The car is right over there!” The man was saying.

“That’s what you said the last five times,” the woman scowled. “I told you we should have taken the shuttle bus, idiot.”

The pair of guards shared a confused look with each other before leaving their post to approach the angry pair.

“I was not going to ride in one of those tin cans again,” the man said, scowling back at the woman.

“Whimp,” the woman said, tossing her hair over her shoulder and adjusted her sunglasses.

“Hey! You!” the man said, spotting the approaching guards. “Come here. We’re lost. Can you tell us where the Pacific Cruise parking lot is?

“You two have to move away from this area,” the guard said sternly.

“What the hell do you think we’re trying to do, dumbass?” the blond man snapped. “Just tell us where the parking lot is so that we can find our car.

“Oh, sure,” the woman huffed. “Start a fight, why don’t you? Next time I’m going to Alaska with Mom and Dad.”

“Like you could stand all of that sunlight this time of year,” the man scoffed at his sister. “It’s summer. Night is only a concept up there right now.”

“Whatever.”

The guards looked on helplessly as the two started to shout insults at each other. Another pair of guards had stopped patrolling to watch the unusual spectacle and see what their colleagues would do about them, but the brother and sister were a formidable pair and their glares were as scary as Grin’s.

 

LOCATION: Port Gates

Congressman Horowitz was in a bad mood. Sayle’s contracting company had managed to screw his wood panel order up, so now he was here to see where the shipment had ended up. If it wasn’t here, there were going to be some serious words said the next time he saw Sayle. He pulled his car up to the gate at the Port of Los Angeles. A young Asian man smiled welcomingly at him from behind a pair of rather large spectacles as he leaned out of the guardhouse window to talk to him.

“Excuse me,” Horowitz said as he rolled his car window down.

“Yes, sir. Congressman!” the young man exclaimed when he realized whom he was now speaking with. “What a pleasure.”

“Thank you,” Horowitz said, dismissively, pulling out the paper work he’d printed off and handed it to the guard. “I paid a fortune for these mahogany panels and I’d like to know where the hell they are.”

“I can help you with that right here, sir,” was the reply. The young man seemed eager to help him. Horowitz couldn’t help but smile at the man’s enthusiasm.

 

LOCATION: The Container

While Shiho and Saguru were keeping the two guard’s busy Kaito – dressed as a construction worker – and Heiji – dressed as one of the couriers that drove the port’s white delivery trucks – were working on the container.

“They changed the lock,” Kaito huffed.

“Just do what ya do,” Heiji grunted. “Whatever ya need ta, ah…”

Heiji trailed off when Kid pulled out a small bomb from his tool belt.

“Nah. Uh-uh.” Heiji paled, backing away as Kid shot him what he’d long since dubbed the crazy psycho grin. “Hell no.”

Kid ignored his partner and fixed the bomb to the container door, setting the timer while Heiji moved away to a nearby delivery truck. He shot a quick glance at Saguru and Shiho and saw that the two were still in the middle of a heated debate.

That was when Hans Grin returned, having heard the commotion going on over by the container. Heiji quickly jumped into the truck’s cab and waited impatiently for the signal.

 

Grin couldn’t believe what he was seeing as he rounded the last stack of containers to find his two guards standing away from their post watching dumbly as this weird couple argued about Goths and Preps.

“It was a phase!” the blond man was yelling.

“Captain of the gymnastics _and_ cheer squad teams? Yeah. Sure it was,” his female companion scoffed back.

“Oh bite me, Buffy,” the man growled back.

“Hey!” Grin yelled, having heard enough of this nonsense. “You two, back to your posts,” he snapped at the guards before turning to address the blond couple. “What is this?!” he demanded, pausing what he finally came face to face with the man. He looked familiar. Hadn’t he seen him at Sayle’s office a little less than a week ago? “I know you.”

“What?” the blond man frowned. Grin frowned as well. This man didn’t have the accent Grin remembered him having.

That was when all hell broke loose. There was a loud, deafening explosion nearby. The couple stumbled forward, the man shielding the woman.

“Check the container,” Grin ordered the men in his patrol group. They hurried away. Grin was just turning to address the couple once more, but they had run across the way from him and were now standing before a wall of shipping containers. He took a step towards them, but a big white delivery truck drove right between him and the pair, moving as if it were in a real hurry, and in the few seconds it took the truck to pass, the blond man and woman were gone, leaving only their suitcases behind.

“Where’d they go?” Grin growled. “No, no, no!”

Feeling a trickle of fear shiver down his spin he raced towards the container he was supposed to be guarding and saw that it had been the source of the explosion, the doors had nearly been blown off their hinges, the opening scorched. The container was empty. Whatever had been in there was gone now.

“No!” he shouted angrily, waving at his men to follow him as they raced after the truck. “Perimeter! Perimeter, there’s a white truck coming at you. Do NOT let it pass!”

Grin and his men were in such a hurry, jumping into their vehicles after the delivery truck, that they didn’t see Congressman Horowitz make his way into their sector, looking down at a piece of paper he held in his hands and at the containers around him.

 

LOCATION: Port Gates

Heiji grit his teeth as he brought the truck roaring through security and the front gate with a pickup truck full of Storm Breaker soldiers in pursuit. Next time, Heiji vowed, Kid was going to drive the truck and get chased by trigger-happy gunmen. He slammed on the breaks just as another pickup truck pulled in front of him and forced him to stop. Men jumped out of the black pickup trucks and surrounded him, pointing their guns at him.

“Hands up,” one of the guards shouted at him.

Heiji sighed and raised his hands into the air.

Heiji couldn’t see it, but back at the gate he’d just blown through Grin’s crew had just pulled up and so had Herod Sayle. Sayle was looking around in bewilderment at the rush of activity as his company’s guards ran around like chickens with their heads cut off.

“What’s going on here?” Sayle demanded, watching Grin shove one of the regular port security guards out of the way.

“What are you doing here?” Grin asked, a little too tersely. You couldn’t blame him though. He wasn’t having a good day.

“We’re moving the container today,” Sayle frowned. “Why else? Now, what’s happening?”

“The container is empty,” Grin said through gritted teeth before moving on. He could see the white truck stopped by the perimeter patrol a little ways in the distance. His men were out of their vehicles, guns pointed at the driver.

Sayle didn’t give his head of security another glance, heart beating fast as he put his foot on the gas and hurried his car over to where his container was.

When Grin got to the white truck he noted that it was unmarked with little to no identifying marks. He was willing to bet that the plates were fakes as well.

“Get out of the truck,” he shouted as he came around to the driver’s door.

The man that got out wore clothes that were big and loose, looking a couple sizes too big for him. He was also tall. Surprisingly so, considering he was Asian. China men weren’t usually that big.

“And just where do you think you’re going?” Grin demanded.

“Just transportin’,” China man said in halting English.

“No, you’re just gonna open this truck,” Grin growled, grabbing the man and shoving him towards the back end of the truck. “Open it!”

The China man frowned, eyes narrowing at him.

“I know what dis is. Dis racial. Dis ‘bout my et’nis’ty, ne? Yah! It ‘cause I Cat’lic.”

…What?

 

LOCATION: The Container

Congressman Horowitz stared in surprise at the blown out container, wondering what had happened there. He was still looking for the container holding his mahogany wood paneling, but the sight of the ruined container had distracted him.

“What did you do?”

Horowitz started in surprise, turning around in time to see a furious looking Herod Sayle stomping up to him. He was even more surprised when Sayle grabbed him by the lapels of his suit and shook him.

“Who the hell are you working for you stupid son of a bitch?! I will bury you!” Sayle raged.

“Get your damn hands off me!” Horowitz snapped and shoved Sayle away, having had enough of the rough treatment.

“You don’t think we kept all of your e-mails? All of your phone calls?! You go down with us on this,” Sayle said, continuing his tirade.

“What is this? What’s going on?” Horowitz demanded.

“This is the container!” Sayle shouted, gesturing to the ruined blown out container they were both standing in front of.

“The container?” Horowitz frowned, trying to make sense of what the man was saying. Then it clicked. “The container with the Iraqi money?”

“I’m supposed to believe that you just happened to be here on the day that a couple hundred million dollars in cash goes missing?”

“Don’t blame me! I helped you smuggle that money through customs. I broke laws. I could go to _jail!_ ”

Horowitz and Sayle stood there for a moment glaring at each other until they heard a small party approaching. They both groaned when they saw the cameras and microphones and began to self-consciously straighten their appearances.

“Congressman? Is this the container, Congressman?” A woman holding a microphone with the CNN block on it asked.

“Uh…what?” Horowitz blinked, not sure what was going on now.

“You called us, Congressman,” the newswoman pressed.

“I—no, no, no, you must be mistaken about that,” Horowitz protested, glancing at Sayle, pleading with his eyes for the man who’d been his partner for years to believe him.

 

LOCATION: The White Truck

“Just cuz one bad priest make news, no mean all us bad. What ‘bout nuns? Tha sisters is lovely ladies. They—”

“Open that door,” Grin said stiffly, shoving his gun in the China man’s face. His patience had reached its end. “Or I open your head.”

“Ok! Ok!” the China man whined, flinching away from him, muttering in gibberish as he fumbled with the latch on the truck’s back door. Grin helped the man push the door up, but all he could see was an empty truck.

 

LOCATION: The Container

The woman from CNN made her way forward past the congressman and moved one of the open doors back to reveal the numbers on the container.

“No, it’s not this one,” she said, frowning. “This is 542.”

“What?” Horowitz said, puzzled. Seriously. What was going on here?

He and Sayle watched with growing trepidation as the reporter shut the door and moved to the undamaged container next to it.

“Your phone call said 541,” she said, smiling winningly. “Sir, you’re holding the key.”

“Oh,” Horowitz said in surprise, looking at the key and map in his hand. “Yeah, well…”

In that moment Horowitz realized he had been set up. He didn’t know by whom or for what reason, but he was sure that the security guard at the gatepost was involved. He’d been told that the key he was holding belonged to the container holding his wood panels. He had a sinking feeling that it didn’t.

With a fake smile he moved to unlock the container, his heart sinking further with every second. There was nothing else he could do with all of the reporters watching.

“Don’t,” Sayle hissed. “Don’t.”

“They’re watching,” Horowitz hissed back. “They’re filming us.” Then he raised his voice so that their audience would hear. “Herod, will you help me here, please?”

With a resigned look, Sayle and Horowitz pulled open the doors to reveal the container filled with cash. There was a collective gasp from behind them.

“Congressman, what is all this? What have you uncovered here?” the CNN reporter asked.

Horowitz hid a relieved sigh. They didn’t expect anything foul… from them that is. Maybe there was a way to salvage this.

“I have uncovered corruption,” he announced, warming to the story that was quickly forming in his mind. He gestured to Sayle. “This is Herod Sayle, from Storm Breaker Security, and in the course of his company’s very patriotic work in Iraq they discovered a massive theft of U.S. currency.”

“Our intel revealed that this container left Iraq sometime last month,” Sayle added, improvising and working with the story that Horowitz had come up with. “I knew that I would need high level help unraveling this conspiracy so I called the most honest man that I know, Congressman Horowitz.”

“And I want to tell you this,” Horowitz announced, “I for one am not going to stand by and let this sort of war profiteering continue.”

As he’d been finishing his last statement all of the reporter’s and Horowitz and Sayle’s cellphones had started going off. When they opened their phones, they received a video message of Sayle and Horowitz as they’d been talking only a few minutes earlier in front of the blown out container. Horrified, and upon noticing the angle of the video, the two damned men and the reporters looked up and spotted the webcam mounted on a pole nearby the row of containers opposite them.

“Congressman, it this a confession?” the CNN reporter and many others demanded.

“There’s an explanation for everything,” Horowitz said weakly.

“And, sir, what is that explanation? How long have you been involved in this smuggling?” the reported asked, her eyes alight with excitement for a story that was sure to make headline news for the next few days.

Horowitz struggled to come up with an answer and excuse, but nothing was coming.

“Ah crap,” he muttered before turning away from the cameras and walked off, ignoring the buzz of the media frenzy behind him as reporters got on their phones with their bosses to deliver this juicy scoop.

The CNN reporter was no different as she made her own call, grinning up at her cameraman. “We’re gonna lead with crap.”

 

LOCATION: Los Angeles General Hospital

Alex Rider was wheeling himself outside and down the driveway of the hospital, followed by Dr. Jones.

“What’s all this about?” the doctor asked, sounding resigned.

“I don’t know,” Alex shrugged. “James called and said he wanted us down here right away.”

As they reached the end of the drive, they spotted Saguru and his team waiting at the back end of a white delivery truck.

“Hello,” Saguru smiled at them as they approached.

“What do you want?” Dr. Jones asked, her eyes narrowed with suspicion.

“Show them,” Saguru grinned, stepping aside.

“Oh! Me, me, me!” Kid squealed, dressed as a woman again – this time with long strawberry blond hair pulled back in a braid and was wearing a bubble-gum pink dress that barely came down to her knees. She unlatched the door and threw it up, revealing the empty insides of the truck that Grin and his men had seen the day before back at the port.

“An empty truck,” Dr. Jones said tonelessly, looking far from amused.

“Nothing up my sleeve,” Kid giggled before climbing into the truck’s interior and, with a flourish, ripped back a painted canvass that had made the truck appear empty. Behind the canvass were two large pallets of cash from the container of stolen money. In the chaos of arresting Horowitz and Sayle, and while the police were moving the money from the container, Kid had pretended to be part of the construction crew tasked with manning the forklifts and had managed to sneak away with two of the pallets. No one was going to miss a few million out of hundreds of millions anyway.

For a moment Alex and Dr. Jones could only stare in surprise and shock. Naturally it was the good doctor who recovered first.

“Is this stolen?” she demanded.

“Not anymore,” Saguru smiled reassuringly.

“What…what are we supposed to do with it?” she asked, looking overwhelmed.

“Pay for Corporal Rider’s rehab,” Shinichi suggested.

“And some ‘a tha other guys’ rehabs,” Heiji added, looking around at the other recovering veterans limping around outside the hospital grounds.

“Pretty much whatever you want,” Shiho said with a small smile.

“Doc,” Alex said, after finally managing to find his voice. “A couple of cute blonds show up with a few million dollars,” Shiho rolled her eyes while Kid winked at him, “I say we take the win.” He turned back to face the team. “Thank you,” he said with feeling.

“No, Corporal,” Heiji said, stepping forward and grasped the young man’s hand in a firm handshake. “Thank _you_.” Heiji may not be an American or see himself as belonging to any country in particular – even if he always did identify himself as Japanese – but he admired this young man and others like him that fought for their country and aided others in need because they thought it was the right thing to do to keep their own home, friends and families safe. Those men were honorable and they deserved respect.

The other three smiled and followed Heiji’s example before leaving, but Saguru lingered for a few moments longer.

“The world doesn’t work this way,” Dr. Jones protested half-heartedly.

Saguru thought about that and nodded slowly. Then he looked up and saw his team standing further away by Shinichi’s car watching as other curious injured soldiers made their way towards the truck. A group of thieves had become a team of modern day Robin Hoods. They were still learning how to work together, were still getting used to being the good guys for a change, but they had made a difference today, and if _they_ could…

“…So change the world,” Saguru told her. He shook Alex’s hand one last time and after promising to get in touch again soon he moved on to rejoin his team. For a moment the five of them were silent, watching Alex and other injured soldiers gather around the truck, staring and talking about the money inside and what to use it on. It was a great feeling. One that Saguru never got tired of feeling after a successful job. They’d helped these people and now it was time to move on.

“Anybody who wants to walk away can do so right now,” Saguru said softly.

“…One more,” Heiji said after a moment.

“Maybe two,” Shiho shrugged.

Shinichi smiled, shaking his head and bumped his shoulder against Saguru’s in silent agreement.

“…I bought a plant,” Kid suddenly announced. “For the office.”

“Nice,” Shiho said, straight faced, but there was a small amused smile tugging at the corner of her mouth. “I’m sure it’ll be a great addition.”

“What’s it supposed to do?” Kid asked.

Shiho rolled her eyes in exasperation while the others laughed, following Saguru as he moved away and headed towards another section of the parking lot.

“Did ya really give all yer money away?” Heiji asked, after one last look back at Alex and the other soldiers. The whole situation reminded him of a question that had been hovering at the back of his mind since the job had started, but hadn’t found the time to ask. “Ya didn’t buy yourself anything?”

“Oh, I bought a car,” Saguru mused.

“Probably a some tiny little jukebox car,” Shiho scoffed.

“It’s an electric car, actually,” Saguru told them.

“Of course it is,” Shiho sighed.

“How sweet,” Shinichi snickered. “Do you have to wind it up?”

“I’m just trying to be responsible,” Saguru shrugged. “And I’m still testing it out anyway. I’m not even sure if I’ll keep it.”

“Responsible?” Heiji repeated, rolling her eyes. “Ya know it sucks bein’ tha good guy, right?”

“You haven’t figured it out yet, have you?” Saguru asked, grinning at them. “Just because you’re the good guys now, doesn’t mean you can’t have a little fun along the way.”

Then he jumped into a red Tesla Model S. The team watched in astonishment as he backed the car out of an “Electric Car Only” spot and peeled away with a cheeky wave.

“Woo hoo,” Kid whistled, grudgingly admiring the shiny sports car – even if it was electric.

“Oh boy,” Shinichi muttered, shaking his head.

“Is he old enough ta have a mid-life crisis?” Heiji asked.

“No,” Shiho answered. “But he’s certainly compensating for something, I’d say.”

The others nodded in agreement.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And that's the Storm Breaker Job! Sorry for the wait for the second half of this you guys, but what did you think? Was it good? Bad? Should I continue writing more of these? If I do, it'll be a while before I start the next one. I have a lot of other fan fics I need to get back to and update, but if there is interest in more stories involving these characters in this universe, please let me know in a review and I'll work writing more stories into my updating schedule. :)
> 
> All right! Easter Egg time! Did you catch them all?
> 
> Alex Rider references:
> 
> Alex Rider – title character
> 
> Paul Roscoe & Fiona Friend – characters that kind of become friends in Alex Rider's second book, Point Blank
> 
> Dr. Jones – Mrs. Jones, the assistant to MI6's head honcho, Alan Blunt
> 
> Storm Breaker and Herod Sayle – the first book in the Alex Rider series and it's main villain respectively
> 
> Congressman Horowitz – Anthony Horowitz is the author of the Alex Rider series
> 
> Congresswoman Starbright – the character Jack Starbright was Alex Rider's housekeeper and good friend
> 
> Hans Grin – Mr. Grin was Sayle's lead henchman in the Storm Breaker book.
> 
> "James" – Saguru's middle name is something I've seen in a lot of fan fics, but I got the idea from a Tumblr RP-er whiteknighthakuba. I liked this idea so much that I have adopted it into my own head-cannon for Hakuba's character and use it in many of my fan fics. Because Hakuba is half-English and grew up in the UK, it made sense to me that he should have a middle/Christian name. He was raised as a Catholic in my head-cannon, so "James" is the name of the Patron Saint he chose for his Confirmation/Christian name. But James is also the name of a character that Alex Rider meets and befriends in Point Blank, so it's kind of a duel purposed Easter egg.
> 
> So what do you think of my Easter Eggs? Are they fun to look out for when you read? Should I keep using them? Let me know what you think in a review! Thank you so much for reading. I hope you enjoyed reading these fics as much as I have had writing them. :)


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